Guaranteed Healthcare

A number of years back my grandparents were fortunate enough to travel to Australia and New Zealand. They had a wonderful time and while there went on a boat tour of the Great Barrier Reef. Well, unfortunately Grandma leaned out too far while getting a look at the wonders of the deep. She toppeled out, banged her head on a mass of coral and ended up with a terrible cut.

The tour called in an emergency boat to race Grandma back to shore for treatment in the nearest intensive care facility. Many, many stitches later Grandma was resting in hospital under close observation. Because of the quick reaction by the crew, expert care by nurses and doctors, and a dose of good luck she avoided infection and was able to leave the next day.

Upon leaving she told her attending physician that she probably owed a fortune and asked who she should see about paying. The doctor looked at her and said, "You don't owe a thing." Grandma was non-plussed, but then thought she had figured out the problem. "No, you don't understand," she said. "I'm not Australian. I'm from America." Then the doctor laughed and replied, "I had guessed that. But you don't understand. Nobody pays." Of course it isn't that nobody pays. It is that everyone has chosen to pay in the most equitable and economical way possible. Australians, and everyone else around the world except us Americans, have figured out that it costs more to have people pay at the point of care, or to have a whole industry of insurers, than it does to have everyone covered as a matter of course.